Bounty Hunter Anon III

by Sunny Solaire

The Assault

The Sonic Rainboom flies through hyperspace alongside Master Luna's ship. A number of fighters were in tow, while the rest of the Republic and Mandalorian fleets were somewhere further behind you. It is only a matter of minutes until you arrive at the black hole cluster that houses Sombra's space station.

You are piloting. Thunderlane is beside you, while Anon and Sunset are standing behind you. Somewhere else in the ship is Lyra, Bon Bon, and Gilda. Everyone in here is armed to the teeth. Master Luna is flying with Applejack, Big Mac, Maud, Pinkie, Limestone, and Coco Pommel. Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rarity aren't cut out for combat, so they're back on the command ship with Tempest.

You were a bit reluctant to take your ship for this assault, but Anon's ship is down for the count. That crash in the hangar completely destroyed the landing gear, and there was no way to repair it in time. He was grateful that no one died, but you could tell he was pretty upset about his ship being unusable. It's his and Sunset's home, after all.

An alarm starts beeping on your console letting you know that you're about to reach the cluster.

"We're here." Thunderlane says.

You take a deep breath. It's 'go' time.

"Coming out of lightspeed in five..."

You place your hand on the throttle and decelerate. The ship comes back into realspace alongside Luna and the rest of the fighters. More ships appear on your scanner within a matter of seconds.

In front of you is a massive, swirling, twisting cloud of red, orange, and black gas. Lightning occasionally flashes and arcs along and beneath the surface. If you didn't have the Sith's navigational data, there is no possible way you could fly through it and reach the center in one piece. Fortunately, you have that data available.

As you pull up the data and begin to calculate a course, Anon steps forward and activates your comms. "All wings report in."

"Blue leader standing by."
"Green leader standing by, Mandalore."
"Black leader standing by."

While the number of Mandalorian fighters reply to Anon, you calculate a path through the gas cloud and around the black holes that is just narrow enough for your small fighters to fit. It requires lots of zigzagging and sudden acceleration. It will be rough, but not unfamiliar territory.

You get on your comms. "Master Luna, you ever find time to do the Kessel run?"

"Once or twice." Luna replies.

"Good." You grin. "This will be easy then."

You send Luna your calculations just as the fighter squadrons finish reporting in. "All wings accounted for, Commander." Anon says.

"Excellent." Tempest replies in your ear. "All ships, lock s-foils in attack positions."

As you approach the cloud of gas, you start to actually see the Sith fleet with your own eyes surrounding the entire thing. It is stretched out relatively thin, but they will still be able to defend themselves pretty well. Your fleet just needs to punch a hole in their defenses, and you'll be able to slip through.

You lick your lips as your long-range scanner picks up multiple enemy fighters heading your way. They know you're here.

"You might want to buckle up, Mandalore." Thunderlane says, looking back at Anon for a second. "This is gonna get bumpy."

A number of Mandalorian and Republic fighters fly past you and leave you and Luna behind. After a few seconds, blasterfire begins raining across space from both sides. Mandalorian yellow, Republic red, and Sith green energy bolts fly in every direction as both sides engage each other in dogfights.

"Black group. Stay with Mandalore and the Jedi. All other fighters engage the enemy and make a hole." Tempest commands.

You turn on your stealth drive and accelerate. Luna follows right beside you, along with an entourage of Mandalorian ships as an escort. Anon grips your seat tight as you make a swift turn to avoid an oncoming ship. You can hear his mechanical arm whir as he tightens his grip. Multiple Mandalorian ships fire at the Sith fighters as you all accelerate towards the blockade.

---

Tempest stands at the helm of her Kandosii cruiser with her arms folded as the fleet engages the Sith. Twilight stands at her side. Gradually, the entire viewport fills with the sight of the gas cloud as the fleets converge on the Sith blockade, all while the smaller fighters dogfight each other all over the place. The assault has officially begun.

A Mandalorian navigator speaks up. "Commander. The Sith are spread out, but they are moving to block our assault."

"All ahead full." Tempest replies. "Send those Star Destroyers to hell."

The Kandosii rumbles slightly beneath them as the sublight engines accelerate them closer to the Sith.

Twilight's bracelet buzzes and she brings it up in front of her. A holographic image of Shining Armor appears and looks at her.

"Twilight, how is Spike's analysis of the battle going?"

Twilight shakes her head. "He isn't doing any battle analysis. I haven't asked Tempest if that's okay. I don't know how she would take it."

"How I'd take what?"

Twilight looks over at Tempest as she stares at the twi'lek. "Um. Well, could Spike run a battlefield analysis during the assault? He can plan, strategize, and coordinate attack patterns for the entire fleet."

Tempest hums for a moment. "Spike."

On Twilight's bracelet, Spike appears next to the miniature Shining Armor hologram. "Yeah?"

"Are you as good as she says you are?"

Spike rubs his cartoon claws together for a moment and glances at Twilight for support. She smiles and nods at him once and he smiles back at her before turning his gaze back to Tempest. "Yes ma'am."

Tempest tilts her head towards the console. "Then get to work. I could use you." Twilight and Spike both smile and she walks to the central console to plug him in. "Captain, how are you doing so far?"

Shining Armor appears on the hologram projector in front of Tempest. "Good so far, Commander. We're playing crowd control while you lead the assault."

"Keep at it." Tempest replies. "Mandalore, how are you doing?"

---

The ship lurches to the side as Rainbow makes a hard bank to the right. You grunt and hold onto the seat. "We're fine! We've avoided the fight as best as we can and we're approaching the closest Destroyer now."

The massive Star Destroyer seems to crawl towards you at a slow, steady pace. Most of its turbolasers are firing at or around you. Rainbow guns the engines and expertly avoids the blasterfire. The escort of Mandalorian ships surrounding you all return fire as needed. One of them is hit and goes down.

You curse under your breath as another Mandalorian loses his life. You'll honor their sacrifices later, but for now, you stay concentrated on your goal.

Rainbow growls as she is forced to divert her course and you're once again evading enemy fire. "I can't get closer to the cluster without risk of getting blown up!"

"Move away from the blockade, Rainbow Dash." Tempest says. "I'm going to assault the Destroyers directly."

You look at the scanner. "That's a two-to-one ratio, Commander."

"Good." Tempest says. "I was worried this would be too easy."

You grin a little. Normally, you don't condone arrogance like that, but Tempest can back it up.

Rainbow continues flying circles around the Sith fighters, occasionally returning fire on them as they engage you and your escort. She twists the ship around a time or two to avoid an explosion or crashing into a fighter. Incredibly, Master Luna has kept up with her this whole time. She's a damn good pilot herself.

"Anon, will you please sit down? You're making me nervous." Sunset asks.

You turn to her and she's sitting down in the jumper seat behind Thunderlane. You can't see her face behind her helmet, but you can tell she's worried.

You nod and make your way to the seat right next to her as best you can. It's a bit hard to move with Rainbow's erratic flying, not that you blame her for it.

As you buckle your seatbelt, the ship shakes violently again from a nearby explosion. On the scanner, you see the Star Destroyer divert its entire focus towards a Mandalorian cruiser. It isn't Tempest herself, but it's one of her ships.

The Destroyer fires its turbolasers for a few seconds before an explosion breaks its hull close to the bridge. The Mandalorian cruiser just landed a critical hit.

"That Destroyer is crippled, Rainbow! Go!" Tempest commands.

"Got it! Let's go Master Luna!"

"I'm right with you!"

Rainbow flips around in space and guns the engines to head towards the burning Destroyer. Luna is keeping up expertly. Your two ships lead the Mandalorian escort ships toward the gas cloud and it eventually obscures your view of everything other than it. The cockpit glows reddish-yellow as Rainbow pulls up her scanner and follows her course through the cloud.

The ship shakes violently as Rainbow continues forward. There isn't much debris in here, other than the occasional asteroid, but the turbulence is unreal. The gravity fluctuations aren't making this any smoother either.

Rainbow growls softly as she narrowly avoids a gas plume. "Ooh boy."

The ship shakes violently once again as she continues to twist around inside the cloud. It's amazing how this place seemingly clears up often enough for larger ships to be able to pass through. This place is like a labyrinth.

From the right, Luna flies ahead of you. "Follow me, Rainbow Dash! I found a path!"

Rainbow doesn't reply right away. Instead, she talks to you. "Anon, should I?!"

"She has the Force on her side! Yes, follow her!" You yell.

Rainbow nods and guns the engines. "Lead the way, Master Luna!"

Rainbow follows Luna through the nebula and around the plumes of gas that get in the way. Occasionally, Luna's ship blasts a stray asteroid or piece of space debris. On your scanner, you see that the ships comprising Black group are keeping up with you. They are a combination of Jedi Knights and Mandalorians. They are your only backup.

Along the way, you pass a void of absolute darkness as you fly next to one of the nebula's black holes. Although you're well outside its event horizon, it still makes you nervous. Sticking to the gas clouds means you won't wind up as atoms. No, the worst that will happen is that you'll hit an asteroid, the hull will break, and you'll all get sucked out into space before eventually winding up as atoms... Lovely.

Rainbow follows Luna back into the gas cloud and away from the black hole. Your escort follows right behind you. Luna makes wild turns and sudden drops over and around gas clouds for, what feels like a few minutes. After a while, you break through the gas and are met with the eerie view of a larger black hole. Its enormous red accretion disc slowly swirls around the front before it distorts and warps seemingly up and over the top in the opposite direction.

"We've made it." Luna says on the comms. "I can see the station on my scanner."

"I can see it too." Rainbow says as she accelerates towards the black hole. "It looks like there are multiple turbolaser batteries located around the hull. They don't look too advanced though. We should be okay."

"Even so, be careful." You advise. "We didn't come this far just to die."

Rainbow nods and continues towards the station. Once you get closer, you start to see it with your own eyes. Even from this distance, you can tell it's bigger than most other space stations you've seen.

Like every other Sith spacecraft, this station was sleek, dark, and ominous. It resembled a disk that bulged up and down in the middle. It reminded you of an inflatable ball that had lost most of its air. A few spires stuck out from around the edge as well. You're willing to bet that Sombra is on one of them.

As your handful of ships quickly approach the station, the Sith open fire on you. Their turbolasers blast the space in front of and around you, but Rainbow twists and twirls around to evade them. Luna and your other ships evade their blasterfire as well.

"I see the hangar!" Rainbow shouts.

This is it...

"Nice and smooth, Rainbow." You say. "Everyone else, get ready!"

Rainbow approaches the station and heads to one of the hangar bays. Luna is flying right beside you. As you pass through the energy barrier, you're met with squadrons of Sith troopers on the hangar floor, all firing their blasters at your ships. Rainbow hovers in the air for a moment before landing, and you head deeper into the ship with Sunset to meet Lyra, Bon Bon, and Gilda.

"You ready?" You say to Sunset.

She shrugs. "As much as I'll ever be."

You smile under your helmet and nod. "Let's move! Secure the hangar!"

You take out your blasters and, as soon as the ship touches down, you open the doors. With the four women at your back, you charge into the station.

Immediately, you're met with a wall of blasterfire as the Sith shoot at you. The five of you hunker down and return fire as much as possible, killing a few Sith right away. You're being peppered with resistance from nearly every direction as the Sith concentrate their efforts on you. Your beskar is tough, but you'll be dead if they keep this pressure on. You need to split up.

"Get airborne! Now!"

You activate your jetpack and take to the air. Sunset immediately follows your lead and you both draw some of the Sith's fire. From below, Lyra and Bon Bon also branch out and away from the ground in a different direction. Gilda flies at a lower altitude by herself. The five of you dance around each other in the air as you kill the Sith from above. Many of them try to find cover and return fire as you blast them all, but a good number of them die as well.

On your right, Luna's ship has landed and opened. Luna, Maud, and Limestone exit the ship with their respective two blue and one red lightsabers activated. Limestone roars with fury as she charges the Sith troopers in front of her, slaughtering a few at a time, while Luna and Maud play defense and deflect their blaster bolts behind her. Applejack, Pinkie, Big Mac, and Coco exit a moment later, shooting at the Sith from a distance.

The five of you move to surround the Sith and play crowd control while Limestone and the Jedi cut through them like warm butter. Rainbow Dash and Thunderlane fly out of the ship to join the fight as well. The Sith are panicking and shooting at you all as much as they can, but it's all in vain. They are being decimated.

Eventually, you lose enough heat and are finally able to land without much worry as the straggling Sith are killed by you all. You regroup with your friends and catch your breath a bit. Behind you however, more Sith are entering the hangar. Troopers and a few lightsaber-wielding Sith Warriors have been called in as reinforcements. You shift your focus on them and start to blast them. Maud, Luna, and Limestone move to engage the Sith Warriors, while the rest of you take on the troopers.

Another lightsaber activates beside you. You turn to see Sunset charging into the fray with the orange lightsaber you lent her in her hand to assist the Jedi and Limestone. Part of you wants to worry and stop her, but you know she's more than capable. She'll be fine. Your reinforcements should be here in less than a minute. Jedi Knights and Mandalorians from Black group. They'll watch the hangar and the ships while you all move in to kill Sombra.

After a few seconds, one of the hangar doors opens and members from Black group enter to assist. Mandalorian and Jedi forces converge toward the congregation of Sith attackers and flank them. As more Sith fall, the remnants are forced to retreat deeper into the station. They yell and panic as you kill as many stragglers as you can. Eventually, they escape through a blast door and it closes behind them.

You exhale and scan the hangar just to be sure that they are all gone. You can't see any surviving Sith. It doesn't look like you lost anyone either.

"Hangar secure, Mandalore!" One of the Mandalorians shouts.

You lower your weapons and look around to your friends. "Everyone with me, form up into your respective teams! Black group, stay here and protect the ships!"

Your friends move towards you and everyone huddles up into their teams. Luna, Gilda, and Maud move towards you. The four of you will find Sombra and kill him. Coco, Pinkie, Applejack and Big Mac move around Sunset. Thunderlane, Limestone, Lyra, and Bon Bon move around Rainbow. They will all go together to destroy the station's engines and send it plummeting into the black hole.

You look around. "Is everyone okay?"

Everyone nods and a few people reply. You're all in one piece.

"We should hurry and get going while we still have the element of surprise." Sunset says.

You nod. "I agree. Come on, everyone. Let's go before they-"

Another door opens and a large number of Sith reinforcements enter the hangar. You all turn to face them. Nearly every one of them is wielding a red lightsaber. The ones that aren't are acting as support.

You growl and take out your weapons again. Members of Black group move to engage the Sith, as well as most of your friends. One of the Jedi reinforcements is cut down by a Sith warrior. Luna activates her lightsaber and sprints over to engage the Sith. You, Sunset, and Coco rise into the air to assist them from above.

Red sabers clash with blue and green ones as your forces fight the Sith all at once. It is absolute chaos in here. You hover in the air with Sunset beside you and pick off as many Sith as you can.

"Anon, go!" She shouts. "Get inside! We'll deal with these Sith! Kill Sombra!"

You look at her and nod. "Be careful!"

She nods back and resumes firing at the Sith. You descend to the ground and run to Gilda. "Let's get inside now!"

"One second..." Gilda pauses her assault before pressing a button on her gauntlet and firing her jetpack's rocket towards the group of Sith. It screams through the air and explodes after a second, throwing a number of Sith bodies all over the place. She gives an evil chuckle before turning to you. "Lead the way!"

You run to the blast doors, getting on your comms. "Master Maud, Master Luna, come on!"

Maud strikes a Sith down and runs after you. Luna, on the other hand, is engaging three Sith at once. She's pinned down. You fire at the Sith, but one of the warriors manages to deflect your blaster bolt and send it flying back into your chest. You yell as you stumble backwards a step before facing them again.

Luna growls and jumps into the air a little. The air around her seems to ripple and wave slightly, almost like a mirage on Tattooine. She curls her arms and legs towards her and floats in the air for a couple of seconds. Then, she thrusts her limbs outward and pushes everyone and everything away from her with the Force. A repulse wave of energy sends the trio of Sith warriors stumbling backwards. You feel the Force act on you as well, although at your distance, it isn't strong enough to send you flying.

Luna looks at you with gritted teeth. "Go on ahead! I'll catch up with you!"

More Sith enter the hangar from your right. You and Gilda start firing at them. "We need you!"

Pinkie is moving towards you, firing at the Sith as well. "I'll go with you, Anon! They need Master Luna's help to secure the hangar!"

"I agree, Anonymous." Maud says as she deflects a stray bolt.

You growl through your teeth. They're right.

"Fine! Let's go, Pinkie!" You shout.

The four of you continue to the blast doors. You pass the slain Jedi's body and quickly scoop up his lightsaber as you run. As you reach the door, you activate the saber and it glows bright green. You move to the console and press a button, quickly opening them. The massive doors slide open to reveal a large, empty elevator car. The four of you head inside and close the doors behind you. Finally, you get a moment of reprieve.

You're all panting hard. The green saber in your hand hums softly and you look around. This elevator looks big enough to hold a platoon of Sith. The ones who escaped might be waiting for you when you get to where you're going.

"What floor do we need to go to, Gilda?"

"Hang on." She walks over to the console and presses a button. The elevator rumbles slightly and begins moving up.

"Are you okay Maud?" Pinkie asks.

Maud nods. "Yes, I'm alright Pinkie."

Pinkie gives a small smile and you all stand ready for whatever comes next as you continue to rise. Whatever it is, there's no turning back now. You aren't leaving until Sombra is dead.

Author's Note:

Comments

[Red nova]

This is awesome